“Ooo, what did you get?” asked Lola. “Something good?”
“My f-friend Isra,” said Mizuki, “she got a bow that slows down time. We got a book too, for storage, and it can tell you a bit about items.”
“Entad identification?” asked Lola, raising an eyebrow.
“No, it doesn’t seem to,” said Mizuki.
“Well, there are other solutions,” said Lola, nodding. “Tell me about your team, who’ve you got? You’re… some kind of mage, I’m guessing. Hopefully your friend can use a bow?”
Mizuki was feeling… well, not dizzy, exactly, but off balance. There were too many pointed questions coming in too fast, and the girl, Lola, had an intensity that matched her brilliantly purple eyes.
“I’m a sorc,” said Mizuki. “Isra is a ranger. Alfric is a… I don’t know what you’d call him, a fighter?” She wasn’t sure whether she should be saying any of this. Surely there was no harm in it, right? Someone knowing their party composition, or which dungeons they’d hit, that didn’t matter, the dungeons were different for everyone, and if a dungeoneering team went in to do a dungeon right after you, it didn’t change all that much. There wasn’t any point to being coy.
“Alfric,” said Lola, tapping her lips. “Interesting name. Last name?”
“Overguard,” said Mizuki.
“Of the Dondrian Overguards?” asked Lola, stopping and looking at Mizuki with wide eyes. There was something like playacting in how she said it, a theatricality that lowered her opinion of the girl.
“Um,” said Mizuki. “Yes?”
“They’re a very big deal,” she said, nodding. “A dungeoneering family, one of the best.”
“I knew his parents were dungeoneers,” said Mizuki.
“But you’re local, right?” asked Lola. “I mean, I know a bunch of Kiromon settled here.”
“Uh, I guess,” said Mizuki. “There’s a Kiromo neighborhood in Liberfell. I’m from Pucklechurch.”
“But that’s weird, isn’t it?” asked Lola. “That he would come out all this way to recruit people?”
<Through we go,> said Hannah over party chat. <How are you findin’ the city of Liberfell?>
“One sec,” said Mizuki, “party chat I need to answer.” She turned to the side.
<Very interesting,> Mizuki replied. <And a bit intimidating.>
<We’ll be there soon enough,> said Alfric. <Can you warp so we can meet up? Or give us a location?>
<We’re in the middle of business,> said Mizuki. <We’ve got rooms at the Dragon’s Arm Hotel. I told them to expect you if we were out.>
<Thank you,> said Alfric. <We should meet soon though. We’re leaving the wardrobe in Traeg’s Knob and hoping that no one does anything with it. The rest of today can be for selling what we have. I’m hoping that I can find a floatstone so we have less trouble bringing it back to Pucklechurch. Talk to you later.>
Mizuki turned back to Lola, who was giving her an expectant look. “Problems?”
“No,” said Mizuki. “I don’t think so.” She looked to the door that Isra had gone through, wondering what had taken so long, then back to the strange girl with too many questions. “Sorry if you’re waiting on Perrin, my friend will be done in a bit.”
“Oh, not at all,” said Lola, waving a hand. “I was just going to check in on some bastles we left with him, I’ll come back another time.” She turned to the door, then back to look at Mizuki. “It was nice to meet you, Mizuki. Hopefully our teams run into each other. Tell Alfric he still has my love.”
“Wait,” said Mizuki. “You know him?”
“I’m sure he’ll fill you in,” said Lola, giving Mizuki a wink as she backed out the door. “See you!”
Mizuki stared after her. Alfric was going to have some questions coming his way, that was for certain.
Chapter 28 — It Takes Two
Verity had finished her bath by the time Mizuki and Isra came back from whatever they were doing. The bath had been a proper bath, one with scented soaps that Mizuki apparently didn’t keep stocked at her house. Verity was going to have to spend some time in Liberfell buying a few things. She had gotten used to rather rough living at the Fig and Gristle, necessitated by wanting to stretch her funds, but with all the rings from their first dungeon and a more permanent home with Mizuki, it made sense to stock up on all the little things she’d been missing, like lotions and scents. Perhaps she would buy another dress or two.
When she came out of the shower in her bathrobe, a meal from downstairs was waiting for her, and she didn’t feel the need to stand on ceremony, instead digging in right away. The suite had a nice little seating area, with a table for four off to one side. Mizuki was talking about how their time had gone, as presumably Alfric’s recounting of the trip up the hill carrying the wardrobe hadn’t taken much time to tell.
“Alfric, do you know someone named Lola?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said slowly. He was instantly on guard. “Why?”
“Purple eyes?” asked Mizuki.
“No,” said Alfric. “But I don’t doubt she might have acquired them in one way or another since I last saw her. Mizuki, are you saying that Lola is in the city? In Liberfell?”
“She said—well, she said a lot of things, but one of the main ones was that she was a dungeoneer, and she was going to be based out of Liberfell,” said Mizuki. “We talked for a bit, until I got the sense that maybe I was saying more than I should, and then she just left. But she said, um, that you still have her love.”
Alfric groaned and laid back on the couch, closing his eyes.
“Should I not have talked to her?” asked Mizuki. “Because if I wasn’t supposed to say anything about the party, it’s kind of on you for not giving me a heads-up.”
“It’s fine,” said Alfric, still sitting with his head back.
“Is it?” asked Hannah. “Because you don’t have the face of a man who’s fine.”
“There’s a very long story I have to tell and really don’t want to,” said Alfric, sighing. He sat up. “I’ve known Lola since we were little. Our parents intended us to marry, or not ‘marry’, it’s complicated, but we’re pacted. Technically, we’re still intended to be, but the only reason anyone thinks that is still going to happen is that we haven’t told our parents how much things have deteriorated between us.”
“Okay,” said Mizuki. “So she’s your ex?”
“It goes far, far deeper than that,” said Alfric. He screwed his eyes shut. “I have a confession to make.”
“Another?” asked Verity, who had been eating a pressed sandwich that rivaled the one Mizuki had made. Like that one, it was hard to eat in a dignified way.
“Lola is a chrononaut,” said Alfric. It seemed like saying the words pained him. “And… I am too.” This he said with actual anguish, as though the words were being extracted from him at great expense by circumstances beyond his control.
There was silence in the room.
“Wait,” said Mizuki. “How many times did—how many times did you try to recruit us?”
“You can go back in time?” asked Isra.
“I can live a given day two times, sometimes three,” said Alfric. “Yes. And to answer the question, Mizuki, anything that I’ve done with this party, I’ve done only once. My family has very strict rules about disclosure, and I’ve followed them to the letter. More than to the letter.”